Like a Lover
by thir13enth
Summary: This. This was what he had been looking for all this time. He was always with her, yes. He was always around her, yes. They were teammates, nakama, yes. But this was being with her. Grayza.


**Originally I was going to write angsty Grayza, because like…that's just the way that I go, but then my dear friend** boogey56 **wrote a two-part Grayza drabble and I subsequently joked that her cliffhanger was quite the smut let off.**

 **So then this happened. Happy fucking holidays.**

 **This is essentially a continuation of boogey56's fanfiction,** _Like a Brother_ **. I** ** _highly_** **suggest reading that before this, although I guess you could read this independently. You might be confused. So go for** boogey56 **'s stuff first and then come back to this for double dips.**

 **And yes, the title may indeed be poking fun at the title of her piece.**

* * *

"Cake?"

The word slipped off her lips and the sudden thought of the half-eaten dessert sitting lonely and unfinished on the table in the bakery was enough to completely distract her from even the _very astonishing fact_ that Gray had his hands circled around her hips and that his lips were _so damn close_ to her face that she could see that there was _still_ a streak of whipped cream on his lips.

"My cake!" she exclaimed, pulled herself completely out of the moment, throwing open the door to the bakery and rushing toward their table—where one of the bakery attendants was dutifully cleaning up the remnants of their interrupted-now-resumed date.

"E-Erza!" he yelled after her, running in behind her, completely confused.

What had been going on—had he just made a move on her? What—was this all okay? They had just come out of a terrible weird-not-date-actually-date and he had stupidly grabbed her waist without shame. Had she pulled away from him because he had crossed a physical boundary when he let their noses touch? Or maybe she was actually _genuinely_ concerned about the cake?

What…what did this all mean?

But she paid no attention to him—going straight for the abandoned cake. When Erza set her mind to do something, Erza made sure that she did it.

"I'm not done with that!" the warrior mage barked at the employee, who whitened a few shades upon seeing the enraged woman.

Well, he thought to himself. This wasn't too far from what he had been expecting from her.

And after seeing her not act like herself all day, seeing her steadfastness was a relief.

He smiled quietly to himself, watching the redhead tug the plate of unfinished sweet away from the employee—and grabbing a fork from the employee's apron—before one of the other bakery employees scolded him and kicked him out of the bakery for not having a shirt on.

 **later**

"So now we go to that play you got tickets for then?" he asked her, when she joined him back outside, having finished the cake.

"I thought you liked it when _I_ was the one taking control," she snapped back suddenly.

He clamped his mouth shut. "Sorry," he apologized quickly, not wanting to get back into any weird discussions with Erza again about whether they were going out as friends or as…

Christ, he couldn't even _think_ of the damn word.

"Oh no—" she said, voice quieting. "I…I mean that was supposed to be a joke. I guess I still have to work on my jokes, huh?"

Gray watched her look down, embarrassed. "You don't have to work on anything," he told her. "You're Erza, and I like you just the way you are. So stop making that face—it doesn't suit you."

She looked up at him with her hazelnut eyes and nodded before giving him a broad smile and agreeing. He couldn't help but return one back to her.

"Well…let's get to that play then," she said, pulling out the tickets that she had tucked in the pockets of her dress.

Dress? He wasn't sure why he _just_ noticed that she wearing a cute white sundress—he had probably been trying to be _just friends_ the entire time before he realized that she was actually taking _him_ out on a date. But regardless—now that he knew _for sure_ that this was indeed a date and not a friend outing, he could most definitely notice that she was wearing a cute white sundress (going _so well_ with her red hair and pink-glossed lips) and he could most definitely notice that she was looking absolutely and naturally stunning in it.

He wasn't half sure what possessed him to do it, but he dared a move—putting his arm over her shoulders and pulling her in—testing if she would move away from him just like she had before the whole cake fiasco.

He half braced himself in case she might have decided to punch him instead, though.

Her shoulders tensed, and he lifted his arm a bit to reduce the amount of weight he was putting on her—but after a couple of steps, the muscles around her neck relaxed and he felt comfortable again leaning on her.

It felt just like how she would sometimes help him out when he was tired in battle. He knew that she could handle his weight, and it was what he liked the most about her.

But now they weren't in battle, they were going out…and he guessed putting his arm around her—when he wasn't half-bleeding and about to faint—felt….natural for a moment.

He deemed this a good thing.

 **later**

The play was terrible.

And Erza guessed it was more the fault of the last minute rush buy of the tickets than the fact that it was a sappy romance production that Mira and Lucy had selected for her date. Erza had always preferred more action-oriented plots…she had really only agreed to this play because the two women had thoroughly convinced her that this kind of a play could only elicit "good things" out of their date.

So much for putting faith in her nakama.

They were more reliable in battle, and less so on the dating scene. She'd take note of that.

"No! Don't go!" one of the actors yelled hoarsely, reaching a desperate arm after the supposed love interest who had just walked off stage in a flurry.

Erza snuck a glance at the ice mage sitting to the right of her, whose legs were splayed out sitting back into the chair about three degrees more casually than the rest of the upperclass audience around him. And despite his disheveled look, she guessed it was good that he was tolerant enough to actually sit through the horrific acting—much worse than her own, if she was being honest—and be attentive to what was going on, even if half the scenes didn't really make sense.

Seeing his informal behavior, Erza relaxed in her seat, uncrossing her legs and letting herself loosen in position. She reminded herself that Gray wasn't going to judge her—he hadn't judged her for petty things for all of their life, and he wasn't asking her to be "feminine" or to stop being "masculine," he was just asking her to be herself and to own herself.

The requip mage felt the rest of her body fall in line with her calming and reassuring thoughts.

It was okay. There was no need to be nervous or to be on her best behavior. This was _Gray_ —the man that had stood by her side since her childhood and never demanded anything of her except for her to be honest with herself.

Her arm inadvertently bumped into his and when she looked down nervously to see what happened, she noticed that her arm was mostly definitely taking up more space on the armrest between them and that she was practically pushing his limb.

She immediately snapped her arm back, but he suddenly grabbed her arm and placed it back where it had been lying, leaning toward her and whispering in her ear so as to not interrupt the rest of the audience in the theater.

"Own it. Take up all the space you want," he told her, his tenor voice tickling the shell of her ear. "Don't have to hold yourself back."

Erza swallowed and looked at him before nodding. He put her wrist back down over the armrest and she let the flush that had developed over her cheeks from his closeness to her fade, thanking the darkness of the theater.

It wasn't like he had never grabbed her wrist before, and it wasn't like he had ever whispered something into her ear before. Why was it was so _uncomfortable_ to be comfortable around him when that was all she had ever been around him when they were _friends_ —what made…being _closer_ so much more different?

Why was she insecure about herself when he already knew _everything_ about her? There was nothing to hide—and maybe that was the reason why thinking about this… _relationship_ made it so much more complicated than she had expected it to be.

She suddenly felt a familiar set of eyes observing her, and to her expectation, when she looked up, she found him carefully studying her face. A quiet exchange occurred between their brief eye contact, and once they had come to a conclusion, the two of them got up and silently left the theater.

Once they finally left the theater, Gray looked up at the sky, the early evening sunset casting a warm ambient light around him. She didn't ignore the fact that he was looking particularly dashing, his unbuttoned shirt giving her a very unabashed sight of his well-defined torso and the glint of his necklace against his sternum.

He sighed deeply and pulled his shirt off, muttering something about finally being free from the terrible storyline—as well as the damned clothing he had to keep on. Seeing the pent-up frustration leave Gray in the form of clothing, Erza giggled—a sound that she barely realized that she could make herself.

"Did you just… _giggle?_ " he asked, turning around to face her, with one eyebrow raised and a quizzed smile.

She covered her mouth and shyly stopped her laughter, remembering the way that the other mage had mentioned that he had liked her because she wasn't one of "those girls."

"That was the cutest sound I've ever heard," he said, to her surprise.

A broad smile crept over his lips, a wide and genuine smile that she had never seen on Gray before. He laughed and reached out to put his arm around her shoulder.

This time, she didn't tense up, and in fact, she giggled again, not bothering to cover her mouth with her hands.

"So now that we're ahead of schedule—what did you want to do now?" he asked her.

"Well," she said, taking out a small list of her agenda—the one that Mira and Lucy had organized for her earlier that day—and read the next line. "We're going dancing next."

She looked up at him to look for his approval—but found that he casually shrugged and had resolve to go along with her plans, no matter how ridiculous.

"You won't need any shirt there," she added, jokingly.

Her humor got sucked into the silence, and for a moment, Erza reminder herself again that she still wasn't good at cracking jokes, but Gray laughed, quite loudly before pulling her closer to him.

"Indeed," he agreed, and feeling the rumble of his laughing voice vibrate through her soul might have been the warmest feeling that she had ever experienced up to that point.

That was when Erza realized she had never seen her longtime comrade this happy before, and that was when Erza realized that she wanted to keep that smile on his face as much as she could.

And if doing this…relationship thing was the reason why, she could only really add that as yet another reason why this whole ridiculous date was a good idea in the first place.

 **later**

Erza was not a good dancer, he reminded himself, as he watched her body.

Graceful, yes. In rhythm, yes. But not the least bit coordinated—or at least she looked she was dancing more of a modern contemporary ballet and yoga hybrid than dancing in a grungy club. And yes, people were giving her about a 5 foot radius, but at least for them, that meant having a lot more room to breathe.

She slowly gyrated around, her hips facing forward before she smiled up at him. She caught his eyes and he found himself mesmerized again—the graceful curve from her legs to her shoulders, the way her hair spun around her body, the perfectly placed smile, and confident alluring eyes that just _evoked_ him to come closer and get tangled in her arms.

There was nothing her bad dancing could do that would have broken the spell she had cast on him—

Well, except _that_.

He choked back some laughter before approaching her from behind and placing his hands around her waist to gently calm her down.

She looked back at him, giving him a frown. "I can't dance, huh?"

"You can always learn," he chuckled, stepping forward.

Her back pressed against his chest, and honestly, even he was surprised at his forwardness. He felt her hands suddenly rest over his hands, which were resting just over her abdomen.

The two of them both took a moment—albeit a long moment—to get acquainted with the touch before they swayed to the music together.

And maybe it was the music, or maybe it was the touch—but he felt so _together_ with her.

 _This._ This was what he had been looking for all this time. He was always with her, yes. He was always around her, yes. They were teammates, nakama, yes.

But _this_ was being _with_ her.

And all these years, he realized that—despite her being just a few inches away from his arms—he had never come close to her at all and that there was still so much more distance for him to close.

 **later**

There was no moon, but that didn't mean that they weren't going to walk around in the moonlight.

They had started out talking—laughing at the earlier mistakes of the night—but at some point the strolling turned aimless and the conversation died down.

"Erza," he suddenly said, stopping her from moving forward.

He seemed so solemn.

"What?" she asked, immensely concerned. "Is there something wrong? Is there a problem?"

When he turned his face up at her, he gave her a strained smile.

"No," he said. "The problem is that everything is… _right_."

She didn't understand. She tilted her head and turned to fully face him, and she told him that she didn't understand what he was saying.

"I don't know if this is something you're doing because you want to or because you're just doing this for me," he confessed. "You know that I like you…that I _really_ like you, and I just don't know if you can say the same for me."

The air stilled around them.

"I just don't want to do something if you don't want to do it," he added. He looked back up at her. "So be honest with me—are you doing this for me?"

She thought to herself quietly, assembling the words together as neatly as she could. If there was one thing that she couldn't fuck up—it was this.

"I _am_ doing this for you," she admitted.

His eyes visibly depressed.

"At least," she corrected. "I _was_ doing this for you."

She looked back down at her shoes before meet his eyes again.

"But I'm doing this because _I_ want to as well," she told him. "It's not because Mira or Lucy told me and organized this whole agenda—"

"So it actually _was_ them behind all of this!" he interrupted, placing his hand over his face.

"Well, yes," she answered. "But I wanted to do this too! It's not like I'm going to just do whatever they tell me to do because they told me to do it—I agreed to all of this because I thought that this would help us work everything out!"

She suddenly realized that her voice had raised. His eyes widened.

"Sorry," she said.

His lip twitched. "Don't apologize," he grumbled, his hands unconsciously rubbing over his bare skin, as if he was trying to find another shirt to pull off—having forgotten that he had completely gotten rid of it somewhere in the middle of the dance club to some other girls that didn't mind taking it from him. "I should have known better. _Of course_ you wouldn't just be doing this because they told you to."

She nodded, chewing on her bottom lip before she spoke her next words. "I wanted to do this," she started. "I wanted to do this because I wanted to try this out with you. I don't know anything about feelings and I know much less about intimacy and feelings…but I know that I am comfortable around you and that I trust you and that's what's important to me."

"Erza…" he sighed.

The warrior mage continued. "And maybe that's not what you wanted to hear—I'm just not sure about everything myself and I'm still thinking... _a lot_ …but I don't doubt that we have something here and I don't doubt that I'm enjoying spending time with you."

He suddenly pulled her into his arms, surprising her. She was even more surprised when he laughed out loud, a smile stretched across his mouth.

"Gray?" she asked him, reciprocating the embrace.

"That's okay—that's all I wanted to hear," he told her, pulling backwards and looking into her eyes. "I didn't want to hear all the other bullshit. I just wanted to hear what you really felt."

A smile graced her face and she sank back into a comfortable zone, glad that this conversation—the night, the entire day—had gone well.

She looked at him, and her eyes strayed to his slim lips—the same lips that had just a couple of hours ago gave her all kinds of degrees of smiles—from ones that made her heart stir to ones that made her insides a little too hot for comfort.

He liked it when she took the initiative right?

She took a deep breath before looking back up at him, staring straight into his charcoal eyes.

"So you said you wanted to kiss me?" she asked bluntly.

He blinked for a moment before his lips curled into a smirk.

"Thought you'd never ask."

He leaned forward all the way to close the distance.

Erza wasn't sure if her heart skipped a beat then, but what she was definitely sure about was that his kiss was sweet and solid.

And if this was what he could guarantee in a relationship outside of their ten years of friendzone, she could live with that.

 **later**

If there was one thing that Gray didn't know about Erza, it was that she actually didn't use her door.

He led her back home to Fairy Hills, and honestly was surprised when she completely passed around the main entrance of the dormitory and marched around to the backyard. Without hesitation, she climbed gracefully up the tree, walking over a thick branch that lead to a window, which she lifted open.

Well, she _was_ Erza, he reminded himself.

He watched her slip into her room and waited for her to turn back around so he could wave her a goodnight. That was the proper way to send off someone after a date, right? He could manage that…

…if she turned back around to wave a goodbye to him as well, that was.

She didn't come back to the window, and he saw the light in her room turn on. He waited for a full minute, standing out there in the darkness—feeling extra conscious about being on territory that he shouldn't have been on—before she poked her head back out.

"Aren't you coming up?" she asked him.

His voice caught in his throat.

It was true—her bedroom was no new place for him and he had definitely spent a number of drunk nights at Erza's place, but…this time was just a bit… _different_ , right?

"Y-Yeah," he said, obliging her and following her same path up the tree to her window. He had never felt like such a stranger in such a familiar place. How was it that he had never known that she came into her room through the window?

Oh right—it was because he usually was the one coming to her room to hang out—not follow her in after a long date night.

He ducked his head under the windowsill, briefly wondering if a certain other someone who he knew was in her life had done this before.

He didn't spend too much time thinking about it.

She was sitting on her mattress, and he sat next to her, watching her pull off her well-worn flats. She sighed as she kicked them off, freeing her feet from the shoes.

He couldn't help but smile. It was as if she was letting down her defenses, letting the emotional armor that she kept around her down. He liked seeing her this way—and as calm on her feet as she always was, he didn't think he had ever seen her unrelaxed in this way before.

Well…if he wasn't able to say goodbye from the window in a Romeo-Juliet manner…he was sure as hell going to make sure that he bid her a proper one now.

Slowly, the ice mage reached for his companion's hand, letting his fingers slide between hers.

"Today was fun?" he asked her.

Erza looked down at their interlocked hands, as if she was testing the definition of their alternating fingers and touching wrists.

"Yeah, today was fun," she agreed, her fingers weaving tighter between his.

He couldn't help but notice how perfectly they aligned.

Gray looked back up at her eyes, and her eyes were looking straight at his lips.

And as much as he knew he should have been closing the book for the night, he didn't deny her them, but he brought them to her slowly, sweetly as the first time he had kissed her that night.

He was thoroughly surprised when she took his lips, practically claiming them for herself. Her sudden aggressiveness startled him, making him open his eyes briefly before he shut them again, pressing hard against her lips.

Did this mean..?

If she wanted him again, he wasn't going to hold back. He had been holding back for far too long, and he, to this moment, couldn't believe that he hadn't just developed the guts to fucking ask her out until _now_.

He was so stupid, he thought to himself, feeling their bodies fall to her mattress, her fingers tangled up in his hair and her tongue searching his lips.

He opened his mouth slowly, and she made the leap, touching his tongue with hers and inhaling sharply to catch her breath while her hands fell back from his head and moved onto his back—embracing him hard against her.

And God, it felt _so wrong_ but _so right_.

He searched her eyes desperately, but her eyes were closed and her breathing was hard and her hands were trailing down and she was pressing herself against him and he just couldn't—

"Erza—" he interrupted her, stopping everything and freezing everything in place. "Erza—stop."

Her eyes flickered open and she looked up at him, catching her breath. They gazed into each other's eyes for a long moment.

"I-Is there something wrong?" she asked him, hesitantly. He was close enough to see the quiver of her lips, the stray eyelash on her cheek.

"No…" he admitted slowly. "I just…want to make sure that this is okay with you. I don't want this to come between us later. And…I don't want you to do something that you regret."

She nodded stiffly, her hands slowly tightening around his waist. "It's fine," she assured him. "This…this is…this what I want."

He looked down at her, taking another look at Erza. This was the woman that he had loved and supported since he first met her when they were young adolescents in Fairy Tail. This was the woman that he had watched grow and develop into the person that she had become. This was the woman that he wanted to stand side by side with for the rest of his life.

There was never a doubt in his heart all this time, and there would never be a doubt ever.

"Good," he purred, and then slowly brought his lips down to her lips, giving her another deep and passionate kiss.

She moaned into it—as if _this_ was what she had been craving this entire time—and her hands slowly traced back up his back to the nape of his neck, pulling him closer to her and pressing him even more into her. Even his _dreams_ couldn't compare to what was happening right now. She was _so much better_ in real life than he could ever imagine to himself late at night, and it awakened an insatiable hunger for more that surprised him.

Gray growled suddenly, snapping his head back from her lips, breaking a trail of spit between their mouths and then ducked his head down again, but this time to her collarbones, grazing his moistened lips over the bone before stopping to nuzzle a soft spot at the nape of her neck.

She gasped, her hips lightly thrusting upwards, threatening his own body to gyrate in time. Her fingers on her back squeezed hard, eliciting an animalistic reaction from him—the very idea that _he_ could bring the great Titania down to pants and moans and gasps…

He bit hard before settling his knees onto the mattress, pressing up against the back of her thighs. Her knees were separated and _damn it all_ he could see her white panties underneath her pushed-up sundress. And he knew that he had most definitely seen her naked body before, but he had never been able to praise her in _this_ way before and there was something so much _more_ bare about it all.

Gray slowly—not hesitating, but confident—placed his hands on her knees and slid his fingers down her thighs up to the waistband of her underwear. Her breathing had calmed and her eyes were watching his every movement, waiting to see what he would do next.

His index fingers hooked around the edge of the delicate clothing before pulling. He watched her face the entire time, and he watched her mouth slowly open the further down her panties were removed. At last, he had completely pulled the clothing away, her legs straightening up into the air to help him along.

He could feel her hesitation when she separated her thighs again—and he knew that if there was anything he wanted to accomplish tonight, it was to make sure that uncertainty go away. He wanted to make sure that she was completely safe being _all_ of her around him.

Crooning sweet nothings to her, he leaned backwards to look at her center, before he carefully grazed her center, letting her glisten spread over his fingers. He smelled her sweet arousal and he felt her toes curl, felt her finally release the breath that she had been holding in her mouth this entire time.

His dark eyes flickered up to hers, finding them closed, her perfect eyebrows furrowing together and her lips parted slightly, her chest up and down as she took deep inhales and exhales.

Humming to himself, he pressed his lips onto the back of her thigh, letting his tongue leave a trail of saliva as he moved inwards. Upon meeting silky soft insides, he flicked, tasting her and relishing the melodic sounds she made in time with his rhythm.

"Gray…" she sighed, and he felt her hand grab onto a tuft of his hair, tugging it.

Unsure of why this made the whole action so much damn sexier, he released any restraint that he had and fully went for it, kissing and sucking her more passionately. He felt her heels against his shoulder blades, her breath hitching, her sweet smell encapsulating him.

There was nothing but her in his mind and there was nothing he wanted more to be in his mind. This was all he wanted, and this was all he had ever wanted.

"Oh, Gray, Gray, Gray—" she suddenly said, stopping him by pulling on his hair too hard that he had to look back up at her.

Her eyelids were half-closed but it was clear that she wanted to kiss him and he moved his body forward, placing his hands on either side of her torso and aligning his knees back against her raised thighs before pressing his wet lips onto hers. Their tongues danced for a moment, and he found his hands slowly closing in on her chest, molding over her breasts.

She moaned inside the kiss, bringing her hands over his and urging him to fondle her harder.

The dress had to come off.

It was a realization they both came to at the same time, and coordinated, they sat Erza up before he brought his hands up and under her dress, lifting the entire one-piece up and over her head. She had nothing but her bra on.

Indeed, there was absolutely no doubt that she worked hard on her body, he mused to himself, as he eyed her from her head to waist—seeing the sultry two lines of her obliques leading down to her wide hips, her proud and perky chest.

The bra came off in no time, and his lips latched around the small pink nipple, feeling it grow harder under his tongue and as her moans grew higher in pitch. He rubbed the other side under his thumb, making sure to treat both sides evenly.

The two of them slowly fell backwards onto her bed, and she arched her back upwards to give him more access and to urge him to go harder on her. He did, and she grinded against his groin.

The desire to take off his clothing had never been greater—and to be honest, he wasn't even sure exactly how his habit had kicked in yet. The fact that he still had his pants on was impressive.

For once, however, he wasn't the one taking off his own clothes, and he had to admit that her hands were doing a good job of removing his bottoms. He was so focused on making her feel so fucking good that he barely noticed that he was naked until her hand reached up and squeezed.

He gasped—a noise like that had never come out of him before—and while it was embarrassing, he couldn't help but close his eyes and rest his head between her breasts as she delivered another mind-shattering jerk up and down his member.

"Erza—" he moaned into her chest as her agile hands quickened and the pressure he felt increased.

Damn, this was in no way close to masturbating.

"Erza," he repeated, lifting his head and kissing her neck, feeling yet another growl emerge from his throat. He sucked and bit—hard—and he thoroughly hoped the next day she was left with a mark from him, because he was pretty sure that she had left a number of scratches all over his back already.

He felt his tip rubbing against her, and when he unconsciously thrust his hips, she gasped, feeling the power and potential behind his erection.

Shifting their bodies together, they both watched slowly as his member pointed toward her. Her hand steadied him just above her and they made quick consensual eye contact before he continued, both of them holding their breaths before—

He entered, and there was honestly no way to describe how fucking good the whole motion felt. He grunted, falling over her body, and to his surprise she suddenly wrapped her legs around his waist, angling her body against his body to get him deeper within her, before she rolled him over onto his back.

"I'll be taking control," she purred into his ear. "You like it when I do that anyway, don't you?"

There was nothing he could do to stop the moan that passed past his lips.

She gave him a salacious smile—one that he had definitely given her a number of times, but one that he had finally seen across her lips—and he closed his eyes, rocking his hips up to nudge her on. She giggled, placing her hands upon his chest before she rode him, slow and sensual at first, but then growing aggressive and almost uncontrollable.

His hands came up to her waist to steady her, and he placed his heels onto the mattress and thrust up to give her more of him.

"Fuck!" she suddenly gasped. "Ah, Gray!"

He had never heard a sweeter music than her—calling for him, breathing in sync with him, bucking against his body, releasing in pure raw pleasure, sighing in relief, catching her breath, falling back to the pillows, whispering gratitude into his ear, snoring lightly tangled in his arms…

He could do this for a lifetime.

 **the next day**

Gray wrinkled his nose when he noticed that everyone in the guild turned quiet and was secretly observing him through the sides of their eyes.

At least he had told Erza to definitely come into the guild _after_ him, rather than at the same time.

But from the looks of it, _everyone_ knew that he and Erza had hit it off last night.

"It's because your face is glowing," Cana explained to him, a sleazy smile on her face. She tapped his chest with the bottom of her beer bottle. "And you're carrying that smug I-just-had-sex gloat."

The ice mage unconsciously began to unbutton his pants, suddenly very distracted.

"Gray—you're not in Erza's room anymore," the card mage reminded him loudly.

"Shut up, you alcoholic," he snapped, trying to brush everything off casually—but it was hard to do when the rest of the guild rumbled with laughter at seeing the very scarlet-blush that crept over Gray's cheeks.

"Did you get attacked by an animal last night, Gray?" someone suddenly remarked loudly. "You got scratch marks all over your back."

Gray flushed a deeper red, and needless to say, the rest of the day, no one had to remind him to keep his clothes on.

Lucy not-so-discreetly tucked a wad of cash into her pocket, while hiding a small smile under a well-placed hand.

She didn't really want to admit that she was making money—and _quite_ a bit of it—off her friends, but if it helped pay the rent and the extra money she was paying for water because every damn person in the guild used her shower—then so be it.

* * *

 **Damn. There was more fluff in that piece than I think I can manage in one sitting. Also this piece was long as fuck. Anyway, I hope y'all like this, and sorry about switching POV between Gray and Erza every scene, haha. I usually stick to one POV but this time I kinda let my writing go wherever it wanted to. ;)**

 **As always, let me know what you think! This is my personal first time writing Gray so…let me know if you think I did him justice!**

 **And yes, to those that requested it from me, I'll probably still write some angsty Grayza smut. I don't know where I'll post it, but I'm sure if you look, you'll find it. I'm not going to hide it, haha.**

 **thir13enth**


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